It was a great Christmas. It’s quiet in my house as I write today; much-needed rest for everyone. I’m not sure if it is the joy of having a newly engaged couple in the house or the anticipation of good news or just having everyone around with ‘our new normal’.
We have had so many years under our belts with diabetes and we have learned to adapt; even when our second was diagnosed; we kept adapting. Our base line (when I say our; I mean all those who live with diabetes or a loved one with diabetes) is different from most.
Life gives us so much to deal with that I never thought I would ever say ‘please just let us handle diabetes’ for a little while. I hate dealing with that also but with everything we have been through over the past few years, it was nice to have just the ‘new normal’ back again. We do not really lay it ALL out there……some we do but not all. Some people know, others do not need to know. I have written before, it is life. Life has been a little cruel over the last few years to us.
Many people have had life throw them major curves also. So unfair.
On of my favorite stories is to tell a lesson I learned from my mother-in-law who I loved dearly and one we lost this year, sadly. My father-in-law, her husband, died in September 1999 just one week prior to a walkathon major event that we had participated in for years. The day after his funeral she called me and the conversation went something like this:
“Hello Dear, what time do you want us at the walk?”
“The walk?”
“Yes.”
“Are you sure you want to do it this year?”
Silence.
“Tom, life is for the living. Pain can stay, but we must move on or the pain takes over. SO what time do you want me there and what should I bring?”
I miss my mother-in-law she was the definition of class and she blessed our lives for many years with ‘pearls of wisdom’ such as these. I called them lessons-in-life, she just called it conversation.
So this Christmas season was a lot of laughs and much fun and excitement. More so than in the last 3 or so years. I think we deserved that, even with the new normal, it’s time to move on. And we will, as many do.
I am a diabetesdad
One reply on “This Christmas…..We Welcomed Back the ‘New Normal’.”
Lovely post Tom. You are so blessed to have a mother-in-law your close to and learned wisdom from. My wifes mother will hardly talk to her, when she does she is rude. That’s one of the many things we have as the new normal along with 2 kids with T1.